Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Billy Joel Fantasies and Delusions

Has anyone played any of these? What's your opinion on them? I'm looking at learning Reverie (Villa D'este) as a nice contrasting piece to my program. Thoughts or pieces that it is similar to? Are there other works in this collection you like?

I thought the whole collection was derivative and imitative (that, of course, is his right). You're better off learning pieces by the composers he copied.

I generally agree with this opinion. However, I do want to give a shout-out to good ol' Billy Joel. He has recently been writing and talking about the classical "conversion" he experienced a few years back through listening intensely to Beethoven symphonies, and finally "getting them" in a way he never did before. (The same experience being discussed in the parallel thread "How could I have not heard it before?".) I know at least one person I read of online who discovered Beethoven because of Billy Joel's enthusiastic recommendations.

Then furthermore, he puts his money where his mouth is and risks being derided by actually composing "classical" pieces. They're not great; he's said so himself. But they're a great effort, and (trying not to sound condescending here) I think it's great that he did it.

Point overall is that Joel at least is definitely not some charlatan who thinks "I'm so awesome, I can do this classical thing too", and puts out derivative material while he thinks he's the next Bach. The title of his opus shows the humility and sense of humor he has about the whole thing. I think he really gets it, and he might become a great popular force for "classical" music.

I think they show much promise, the signs of a good classical composer in the making. As such, of course, he's still trying to find his own "voice" in them. I'm curious to hear more from him, as this is the only non-pop exposure I've had.

I guess, but does he really have any incentive to improve? The fact that he was able to sell a volume of student-quality compositions like that suggests that we may not see anything better in the future.

It's interesting to note as well, that he says that he writes some things that he has trouble actually playing correctly...I find that interesting.

I agree that he is trying to find his voice. Once in awhile, you'll hear him in there, but only fleetingly. Rock is my first love, but I can appreciate some classical music--unfortunately his is is not my favorite (despite being an ardent fan of his otherwise), but it's fun to follow his development as a musician! It's rare to get to follow such an artist take such a divergent path in 'real time'. However, if I was going to start playing classical music, I wouldn't start there either, for any number of reasons. But really, at the end of the day, it's about playing what moves you, isn't it?

mkorman:
That all depends on what kind of person he is. I have no idea if he was just trying to say "hey, I can do this too" or if he actually has a love for the classical tradition and wants to improve upon himself in that way. From what beet31425 said about him, I think he is the latter. That means that even if his attempts meet with marginal success (I don't think people are raving about his classical stuff), he will continue to work on his craft for the sake of getting better. Obviously, this was not a money-making enterprise for him.

Billy Joel started out taking traditional classical piano lessons when he was a kid. I've heard him in interviews talking a bit about going back to that influence on his childhood for inspiration.

I really tried to like the cd but just found it boring. I wouldn't even begin to think of learning to play them. But I still give Joel kudos for taking on the challenge.

I haven't listened to any of Billy's classical stuff yet but will probably check it out sometime.

There are alot of pop/rock songs with piano parts I really like that I think it would be interesting to be able to listen to apart from the rest of the song. Strip away the vocals and most of the other instruments and listen to it kind of like you would classical. Some songs might turn out to be a big disappointment since they weren't written to be listened to this way this but I think there are many that would actually be surprisingly good.

I have played several of them. Mostly back when I was in highschool when they first came out. The star crossed suite, the lola waltz and the dublinesque. They were fun to play and were not as difficult as they sound.